Son of JayJamJah

Here is my proposal for how to improve the quality of play and elevate the NHL back into Americas top four sports.

The Clarence Campbell Western Conference

The Wayne Gretzky Division
Edmonton – The history, the dynasty, a nice run in ’06 to the cup from the #8 seed; a no-brainer to keep.
Calgary – The Great Cup Run to end Edmonton’s Dominance, The Saddle Dome is electric, great uniforms, nickname and logo.
Vancouver – Solid Fans, typically competitive franchise. Need a strong Canadian Base.
Los Angeles\Anaheim – The Los Angeles Kings of Anaheim? Have to have one team from the area, do not need two. The Kings have better nickname, colors, market, Anaheim has better fans, history and arena. Teams combine rosters but do not get dispersal draft picks but they may trade for them.
Winnipeg – Phoenix Moves Back; a third team with Gretzky connections and another Canadian franchise restored.
Colorado – Two Stanley Cups and a part of the best rivalry of the 1990’s. Great nickname, fans and uniforms.

The Gordie Howe Division
Detroit – Original Six; best franchise in the sport the past two decades.
Chicago – Original Six; rising franchise with great fans and young stars.
Toronto – Original Six; still in rebuilding mode, NHL needs them to be good again, the player dispersal draft would give them a chance to improve right away.
Dallas – Dallas stole the franchise from Minnesota but has taken it to new heights. A Stanley Cup championship and a very competitive seven year run in the Western conference keeps Dallas in the league.
St. Louis – The Blues have been a solid franchise for years and just never gotten over the hump, great logo and uniforms and
Minnesota – The nickname has to change back to North Stars, the Wild is awful, has no history and the change would potentially fuel a rivalry between divisional foe and franchise stealing Dallas.

The Prince of Whales Eastern Conference

The Mario Lemueix Division
Pittsburgh – The team in which #66 himself Super Mario suited up for his entire career. One of the best non-original six American hockey cities.
Philadelphia – Much like Pittsburgh, the flyers have a strong fan base and also a pretty nice history.
NY Rangers – Original Six with the least winning tradition but the largest market and a solid draw at MSG.
New Jersey – The Eastern Conference’s top team overall the past 15 years with three cups to show for their efforts.
Washington – The leagues most exciting young talent and an emerging power in the Eastern conference, the switch to the red, white and blue is the best thing they could do.
NY Islanders – The Dynasty through nearly three decades removed makes them to valuable to the sports history to ditch, plus a great nickname and the blue and orange are also delightful.

The Bobby Orr Division
Boston – Original Six team back on the rise. Salary cap was best thing to happen for B’s fans.
Montreal – Original Six team with greatest tradition and legacy; currently going through the franchise’s longest draught.
Ottawa – The Baby of the Canadian franchises nestled comfortably in the heart of the nation’s capital.
Quebec– Bringing the Nordiques back a la the Cleveland Browns, without removing their descendants the Avalanche. This Expansion team would get the first and last pick of each round of the player dispersal draft as well as an extra selection in the middle of the first round.
New England – The return of the Whale. Carolina returns to the Northeast and the franchise’s root as the New England Whalers. Hartford can not sustain a franchise but New England can sustain two.
Buffalo – The Sabres looked to be revived and Buffalo is a fitting market for Hockey.


Franchises to be moved or Change Names
Carolina – To New England (Whalers)
Phoenix – To Winnipeg (Jets)
Los Angeles merges with Anaheim (Kings)
Minnesota (North Stars)


Franchises to be eliminated
Columbus
Atlanta
Nashville
San Jose
Tampa Bay
Florida




Schedule
78 Game Regular Season - Each team plays it’s five divisional foes six times (three home, three away), the six conference foes outside of the division four times each (two home, two away) and the 12 members of the opposing conference twice each (one home, one away).
Return of Divisional Playoff Format – The top four teams from each division make the playoffs, 1vs4 2vs3 and so on from there.
-First and last ten games of each season against divisional opponents.
-Original Six Rivalry Week: The three west teams host the three east teams then vice versa for a specific week each season.


Equipment and Rules Changes
-Shrink the Goalie Pads
-Expand the Ice to International Playing surface Dimensions
-Allow fighting and cut down on cheap shots and chippyness after the whistle.
-Change Scoring back to win\loss\tie 2\0\1 point format.
-Overtime 4 on 4 full 20 minute period no shootout.
-Remove curve restrictions on sticks.


Additional Nuances
-Eliminate the All-Star Game, Expand the Winter Classic to four Games over four days in primetime featuring the top two teams from the year prior in each division. Example: 2010 – Detroit vs. Chicago at Wrigley Field, LA\Anaheim vs. Vancouver on the Beach, Boston\Montreal @ Fenway and Pittsburgh vs. Washington at Hines Field.

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My Van Morrison Discography Thread

ProggyMan

Eliminate the Sharks?

Son of JayJamJah

Do you have a better plan?

The league needs to be trimmed down, the Sharks are less then 20 years old and have had very little success, plus Hockey in Ca. is an afterthought, one team is enough. Who would you cut?

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If you're posting in the music forums make sure to be thoughtful and expressive, if you're posting in the lounge ask yourself "is this something that adds to the conversation?" It's important to remember that a lot of people use each thread. You're probably not as funny or clever as you think, I know I'm not.

My Van Morrison Discography Thread

ProggyMan

Not one of the most talented, youngest teams with great fan support? Ever taken a trip to the Tank?

Son of JayJamJah

Never been, but who else would you eliminate if not the Sharks?

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My Van Morrison Discography Thread

ProggyMan

St. Louis (Even though I'm a fan): Less fan support, inferior, older team. You could say the same things about all but a few teams, the only reason the Sharks are even being considered is because they're an expansion team, no?

Double X

I don't think New England can support more than one team...we barely have enough support for the bruins.

Son of JayJamJah

Actually the Bruins did great this year and always had until their owner ruined things by never spending money. I suspect the return of the Whale would really get things cookin' College Hockey is huge in the northeast.

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My Van Morrison Discography Thread

lucifer_sam

some good suggestions here, some bad ones too.

i like the idea of combining both socal franchises into one, i was in Anaheim in '07 around this time and they don't give a shit about hockey at all. not only that, but most southern franchises are terrible places to host hockey to begin with (Washington being the only glaring exception).

i'm with Proggyman, Sharks over Blues for sure. St. Louis (like Detroit) is a dying town but (unlike Detroit) happens to sit on a horrendous hockey franchise and terrible fans to boot.

i'd also like to propose that the NHL revamp its policy towards calling penalties. there's been too many chippy calls and borderline "penalties" called, even in the playoffs, to such an extent that referees feel pressured to make even-up calls. it's stupid, they miss as many as they call wrongly and it's absolutely absurd to let a bad call ruin a game. let coaches get the option to contest a penalty once a game (using the timeout as collateral, much like the NFL), and send it to Toronto.

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first.am

gotjuice

The problem the NHL has is that most of their franchises are in the United States, which, for the most part, doesn't give a **** about hockey. I think the rule changes enacted four years ago could have created more appeal for the average sports fan, but unfortunately, the average sports fan in the U.S. doesn't even know the NHL exists because all the games are on Versus, which nobody gets. We're in the conference finals of the playoffs and most of the games are still on Versus, if they're on at all. Some of my fondest memories growing up were staying up til 3 in the morning to watch Steve Levy call a 5OT playoff game on ESPN2. Those are pretty distant memories at this point. It's true that the lockout was a huge blow to the sport, but if they had shoved their ego and renegotiated the TV contract with ESPN, the country would have forgiven them.

It should be painfully obvious to the NHL, now, though, that they will never, ever, ever, ever surpass the NFL, NBA, or MLB in this country. It just won't happen. So I agree with the original poster's idea that the best way for the NHL to evolve is to contract, not expand.

There's no reason to have to eliminate St. Louis or San Jose, both of which are successful and important franchises. I'm not sure why the original poster has Toronto in the west, I'd move them to the East (where they are now). That'd give one division from each conference seven teams, and then San Jose could fill that other slot in the West. Other than that I really like that setup. I'd also like to see the two-line-pass rule changed back to be illegal, and to eliminate the shootout and go back to the W/L/T format. As stated before, it's painfully obvious those rule changes didn't create any broader appeal, and it's time for the NHL to reappeal to their base. I think both those rules are kind of gimmicky, so I'd like to see them go.